"Orphans Beloved: "Halloween: The Night She Came Home…"
Summary: Like my Immortal Beloved bits in my Buffyverse stories, these are fragments and short bits, some longer…Just to fiddle with ideas, possibly forming longer tales later.
Disclaimer: No copywrite infringement intended…
(Note: Might keep this one going, we'll see. Anyway…It seems there was yet another "problem" child in the clone mix…)
Part VI…
"Oh, wow…" Cosima stared at Paul in uniform as the two soldiers "escorting" her, one carrying her oxygen tank, led her over to him on the main floor of the old section of the Dyad Institute.
"So you're back with the Man big time? Military?" she eyed Paul. "I mean I knew you were military…Afghanistan and all that that Sarah told me about." She paused. "Which I also know was faked, wasn't it?"
He returned her stare. "You're ok?" He asked.
"Hanging in there…" she waved a hand. "What about Sarah? Donnie and Ally said she and Kira were able to get out…"
"A deal's been done…Someone with connections to all parties, including Mrs. Sadler and me, intervened. How did you know about Afghanistan?"
"I didn't…Not completely as to proof…Until you just told me. Just some stuff that my friend Scott and his pals dug up on you…And some other info we got." She beamed. "So the message Felix and Sarah got about you was true? You were a double agent all the time? The Afghan contractor thing was just a cover."
"I was on assignment with Dyad." He replied calmly. "I needed a cover story to make me look vulnerable."
"And you let Beth think you'd betrayed her…" she glared. "Well, you did either way…"
"I didn't intend for her to find out…I did want to protect her, if I could."
"Nice job…And we appreciate all you did for Felix…And Kira, when Rachel grabbed her." Coolly grim stare…
He shrugged…"I had to convince Rachel I was still willing to cooperate…Felix would have been framed or held no matter what I did. And Rachel got Kira on her own…There was no way I could have intervened at the time, alone…But what you think of me, I am here, now."
"To scoop up the marbles for…Uncle Sam? Auntie Queen?…What military do you work for?"
"It's complicated...Lets just say…A branch of Her Majesty's Special Forces but more I can't tell you…Cosima? Right now, for everyone's sake, I need your help."
The Brits…? She blinked…He's working for the Brits?
She frowned, cocking head at him, breathing a bit deeply… "Whoever you work for, I'm not helping you to make more of us or penetrate anything else Dyad has on the Leda project." She shook her head. "Art Bell has the federal guys here and they're shutting this place down, once and for all…That and Kira and Sarah and my other sisters are all I care about here…" They both turned at the sound of yelling from the elevator door.
"Hey, dude! I said, I'm a citizen and I got…!" Scott's voice as the elevator Paul and his team had ridden opened…Revealing Scott held by a soldier, another standing by. The soldier holding Scott forcing him out into the hallway, the other following.
"Hey!" Cosima glared, trying to push to Scott, held by her oxygen line. "You let him go!"
"Easy, Cosima. Let him go, soldier." Paul ordered. The soldier complied, Scott glaring, rubbing a wrist.
"Paul, Scott…Scott, Beth's treacherous ex-…" Cosima made intros…
"Sorry for the rough handling…Busy times." Paul noted.
"Yeah…?" Scott eyed him, then Cosima who shrugged.
"He'd deleted data from an older computer…" the soldier who'd restrained Scott noted. "But he still had these…" he offered Dr. Duncan's floppies.
"Ok…Get them to storage…" Paul nodded. Turning back to Scott with wry smile… "So you were deleting Duncan's synthetic sequence files…?"
"I told him to…" Cosima insisted. "I already told you we're not going to let you or anyone else continue Project Leda. Dr. Duncan died to prevent that and we're not about to cooperate…"
"I wouldn't expect you to…And we don't demand it. But I do need some practical help here…Now." he eyed her. "Something strange seems to be going on downstairs."
"Downstairs?" she looked at him. "In the storage areas?"
"Oh-huh-huh…" Scott beamed, eager. "So the stories are true?..."
Paul and Cosima eyeing him…
…..
Secure elevator from executive wing of the Dyad Institute…Sub-basement level connecting to the older special projects building…
Nealon pushing the gurney on which Rachel lay, twisting a bit but still unconscious…He moved to run Rachel's id card through a card reader and opened a door connecting to the old building…Pulling the gurney though.
"So…Here we are…" he noted to Rachel. "I hate to say it but I'll need an eye scan in a moment, dear." He took up a hypodermic needle and syringe and after tapping, injected her near the wounded eye. "That should keep the muscles there paralyzed so you don't do more damage…And this…" he took up another syringe…
"This should wake you up a bit faster." He felt her arm, then on finding a vein, injected. Sorry to rush you along but I'm afraid we just haven't much time" he pulled the gurney along to the next, far more obviously secure door…
Rachel moaning, opening eye
"Hello, Rachel…Sorry about the discomfort and disorientation but you're all right…You're safe and there's no reason to fear."
"Dr…Nealon?" she stared up at him.
"Yes, I've got you safe. We'll be leaving Dyad shortly….Just one last thing I need to do, if you'll help me now."
"My eye…" She gasped, trying to reach up, but finding herself unable to.
"You'll be fine soon, just restraints to keep you from inadvertently injuring the wound. Rachel, I need to sit you up, just for a moment. I have to get a scan of your remaining eye, so that we can proceed to get out of here. Please, just let me help you up here…"
She stared but allowed him to raise her up…He moved her close to the retinal scanner…
"Duncan, Rachel…Approved…" computer voice…The door unlocking…Nealon easing Rachel back down gently.
"Wait…I know where we are…This is the Special Projects Building…" she looked at Nealon.
"I just need to get us out through here…" he explained, pulling door open… "The police and others are here, we have to slip out. Plus, I need to get a few items…"
"This…Area's…Off…Limits…"
"Not to you…And this is for your sake, dear…"
She eyed him…
No, the same old story…
They all want something…Whatever they can get out of Rachel…
Daddy wanted his girls and a daughter to study…Aldous, his perfectly controlled test subject…Daniel, the power and cash…And, sex, I hope…My superiors, progress and achievement and ultimately, power…Paul…Well, I thought I knew but…
And my bitch sisters…They want to be left alone…Unbothered in their happy, free lives…While Rachel suffers for them…The tramp and the housewife with their kiddies…The lesbian scientist with her lover and her research…While Rachel…
"So, you want a look at the Special Section…" she managed to put some tone of authority into her voice. "I've no intention of being used, Doctor. Or endangered…If our superiors learnt of this…"
Or…If It…
But thank Heavens, It's contained behind maximum security…Though, strange…
"It seems rather dark in here…" she gulped. "My other eye?! Am I losing my sight there as well?!"
"Power's off in the lower sections…" Nealon explained. "Just the emergency to operate a few of the doors here…"
"I see…" she tried to sit up again.
"Don't…You might reopen the wound." He cautioned.
"And you may need me to open more doors or explain security down here." She fixed him with her eye.
"Yes. But I also don't want to see you bleed to death." He noted. "And I could just remove that remaining eye, you know." Faint smile. "Rachel, it's in both our interests for me to secure information down here. We are going to need bargaining chips and things of value to those who could potentially protect us. Dyad's day may be over and we must be prepared to look out for ourselves."
She sighed.
If I could only believe you…But I've been so unlucky in romance…Er, I mean, business associations. Still, there is a degree of sense in what you say…
"Very well…" she lay back. "But be careful…And whatever you do, avoid the lowest section."
"Oh?" Nealon, casually. "Are you suggesting that the rumors…?"
"God knows what the minions rant about at the water coolers…But there are dangerous things down there…"
Or rather…A dangerous…Thing…
"I see." He nodded. She sighing at his look…
"Not worth the risk, Doctor, I assure you."
Faint scream in the distance…
My God…She blinked the good eye…
It couldn't be…
"Doctor, is the emergency power still functioning below? ! There's a back-up generator…"
"I can't say…Perhaps just battery power as here…Rachel?"
"We've got to get out of here!" she grabbed his arm.